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UMaine Men Blow 14 pt. lst Half Lead and Lose 50-49 to Albany

The 5th seeded UMaine Men’s Basketball Team lead by as many as 14 points midway thru the first half and held onto a 9 point 33-24 halftime lead against 4th seeded Albany on Albany’s home court in the quarter-finals of the AE Conference Tourney.

Maine also led by as many as 9 points with about 4:30 to go in the game when Albany made their charge. Turnovers and poor shot selection allowed the Danes to captialize on these Maine poor decisions to go on to win 50-49 and move onto the semi-finals tomorrow ahgainst lst seeded Stonybrook who handled Binghamton 72-49.

Maine outshot Albany from the floor 46.5% on 20 of 43 and Albany was 17 for 50 for 34%, however the Bears only got to the foul line 6 times and two of those foul shots were the results of a tecnical foul. Maine was just 4 of 6 for 67& while Albany got 17 attempts from the line and made 13 for 76.6%

Maine was 5 for 15 from 3 point line for 33%. They were 5 for 9 in the first half but 0-6 in the second half. Albany was 3 for 9 for 33%.

Maine made 3 more field goals then Albany, but lost the game by putting Albany on the line for 17 fouls shots to Maines just 6. Albany made 13 and Maine 4 and that was the difference in the game.

Maine has had a problem with committing personal fouls all season long (averaging over 19 per game)and it came back to bite them again tonight. Maine committed 22 fouls to Albanys 9 and that was the difference.

Maine committed 17 turnovers to Albanys 14 and that did not help matters either.

Justin Edwards lead Maine with 18 and Xavier Pollard added 13. For Albany Roley had 19, 16 in the second half to lead the Great Danes. Maine held lst team all-conference Black to just 9 points

Another key to the Maine loss was the fact that that Fraser got into foul trouble and only had 6 shot attempts all nnight and he and Pollard eventually fouled out. Mike Allison did not attempt a field goal but was very strong on the defensive end blocking ds=several shots and altering others. He had just 1 foul shot, but his defensive play kept Maine in this very low scoring tournament game.

You can see why Allison made the first all defensive team for the 2nd consecutive season. He was Maines MVP tonight even though he only scored 1 point. His defensive rebounding, blocks and altered shots were outatanding.

Maine finishes the season 6-11 in Conference Play and 10-19 overall.

Maine finishes it’s 8th consecutive season with a first round either quarter-final or playin loss. They have not won a tournament game since 2005.

THis was a game that Maine had in the bag and should of won. They only scored 16 second half points while allowing the Danes to score 25 second half points.

Maine settled for jump shots and the Great Danes took the ball to the hoop and that is what put Albany on the line for 17 foul shots attempts and why Maine only got 6, two of which were technical fouol shots.

Albany made better halftime adjustments and did not settle for outside shots as they had a poor shooting night. They took it to the rack and forced Maine to foul. They cut the lead down with foul shots with the clock stopped.

Question, how is it that the conferences leading regular season scorer, Justin Edwards only makes 2nd team all conference?